Today 2.3 billion people do not have access to sanitation, where faeces and human contact are separated and 892 million people are forced to relieve themselves in the open. Consequently, diseases related to poor sanitation and poor water conditions are today between the most frequent reasons behind death among children under the age of five.

Based on this knowledge, Pressalit has joined forces with UNICEF, which is an international relief agency. “The overall purpose of this collaboration is to create awareness about the numerous problems that poor sanitation causes”, says Mette Dyhl Prola, Senior HR & Marketing Director at Pressalit. One of the reasons why Pressalit has chosen to cooperate with UNICEF is that Pressalit since 2002 has adopted the principles in United Nation’s ‘Global Compact’. After the launch of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015, Pressalit has worked dedicatedly with three goals that are particularly relevant for Pressalit’s values and core business; SDG #4: quality education, #6 clean water and sanitation and #12 responsible consumption and production.

Overall, UNICEF works on improving the living conditions for children all over the world with a particular focus on the initiative ‘WASH’ (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene). This goes well in hand with Pressalit’s focus on SDG #6 about promoting clean water and sanitation. “The reason why we cooperate with UNICEF is that responsibility is so deeply founded in our culture at Pressalit. We want to continue demonstrating social responsibility, both locally, nationally and internationally. We profoundly believe that we can all contribute to a better world”, says Mette Dyhl Prola.

Taking social responsibility is a natural part of Pressalit’s CSR efforts, which is centered around three keywords: employees, environment and joint responsibility and especially joint responsibility is what Pressalit aims to take in cooperation with UNICEF.

During this autumn, the cooperation between Pressalit and UNICEF will concentrate on the issues that poor sanitary conditions can cause. This will be done by means of videos, lectures and events. The cooperation culminates with a fund-raising for UNICEF in December, where the donations will be spent on improving sanitary conditions all over the world.